Cytosine base editing inhibits hepatitis B virus replication and reduces HBsAg expression in vitro and in vivo

oleh: Elena M. Smekalova, Maria G. Martinez, Emmanuel Combe, Anuj Kumar, Selam Dejene, Dominique Leboeuf, Chao-Ying Chen, J. Robert Dorkin, Lan Shuan Shuang, Sarah Kieft, Lauren Young, Luis Alberto Barrera, Michael S. Packer, Giuseppe Ciaramella, Barbara Testoni, Francine Gregoire, Fabien Zoulim

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2024-03-01

Deskripsi

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a global health problem due to the lack of treatments that prevent viral rebound from HBV covalently closed circular (ccc)DNA. In addition, HBV DNA integrates in the human genome, serving as a source of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) expression, which impairs anti-HBV immune responses. Cytosine base editors (CBEs) enable precise conversion of a cytosine into a thymine within DNA. In this study, CBEs were used to introduce stop codons in HBV genes, HBs and Precore. Transfection with mRNA encoding a CBE and a combination of two guide RNAs led to robust cccDNA editing and sustained reduction of the viral markers in HBV-infected HepG2-NTCP cells and primary human hepatocytes. Furthermore, base editing efficiently reduced HBsAg expression from HBV sequences integrated within the genome of the PLC/PRF/5 and HepG2.2.15 cell lines. Finally, in the HBV minicircle mouse model, using lipid nanoparticulate delivery, we demonstrated antiviral efficacy of the base editing approach with a >3log10 reduction in serum HBV DNA and >2log10 reduction in HBsAg, and 4/5 mice showing HBsAg loss. Combined, these data indicate that base editing can introduce mutations in both cccDNA and integrated HBV DNA, abrogating HBV replication and silencing viral protein expression.